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Pandemonium

Hello my fellow type A friends
My fellow worriers (and warriors)
My fellow I cant stop watching the news and cannot turn away from the news friends
And anyone who may not fall into the above category.

Once upon a time, oldest lived on a ventilator.
We were fortunate enough, at the time, to have a back up vent in case the power went out.
(This blows my mind because I highly doubt in 2020, that my health insurance would "allow" me a back up ventilator, but back in 2004 we were the lucky ones)
I was petrified during snow storms.
Not because of the snow
but because I was worried of a power outage.
Because the vent had a backup battery but not an endless supply.
My son needed that vent to breathe.
To survive.

When people came to visit, I made them wash their hands before coming close to oldest.
This wasn't because I was a nut bag
but because he had really shitty lungs
and was really susceptible to catching a cold
and because that cold could easily (and often, did) turn into pneumonia.

Oldest would develop a cough and that cough often led us to the ER.
The trip to the ER often led us to being admitted which led us to extra oxygen, steroids and nebulizer treatments.

This was our life for the first few years after Oldest was born.
He is now a fairly healthy 16 year old who does have asthma, EOE(Eosinophillic Esophagitis which is the hot new rare "disease" if you want to be trendy) , and he still is prone to pneumonia.

That being said, I am not freaking out (too badly. Which is crazy because I am known to freak out over a lot of things)
I do worry about him getting sick.
But not so much that I would be buying a year supply of Nyquil, Tylenol, Lysol and Purell.
Which is what is happening in our local stores.

And I am NOT exaggerating.
Shelves are EMPTY.

Want to clean your kitchen?
Good luck finding 409 spray.
Dirty bathroom because your kid didn't aim right?
No lysol wipes for you.
Because the worriers have worried so much for all of us that they decided to hoard this stuff in their basements until the world ends.

I know people like Oldest,
I know Mom's who have kids who are in a high risk category.
I know elderly, cancer patients, and smokers.
You know who needs that stuff?
They do.

Yes.
We could get sick.
I am guessing many of us will because this is clearly spreading like wild fire.
I am also guessing that most of us will be okay.
No. I am no DR but I have been around hospitals and sick people enough to know what high risk is.

Please.
Be sensible.

If you're at the mall, wash your hands before eating the pizza.
And then again after you touch the elevator button.
And when you come home from school.
And during school.
And on the train, plane and bus.

But you know
keep living.

On a side note, we have a cruise booked in the upcoming month.
Will we go?
I don't know.
Because I don't know what it will be like by then.
I do know that the cruise line wants me to be safe (even if they do want to make money, I'm pretty confident they also dont want their names being dragged through mud)

But if we do go
and I'm stuck at sea
imagine the great blog articles I could write?

Stay healthy, village!

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